First and Only
by wintrMoon
Summary: During the night before the Ceremonial Battle, Black Magician Girl comes out to keep her master company as he builds his own deck.


_Hi everyone! Here's another fic from yours truly. I've always loved Atem/Dark Yugi and Black Magician Girl's master-servant relationship. I would have put this fic under Loyalty category if there was any. I'm not sure if this could be called servantshipping but I want Atem and Black Magician Girl to share a moment._

_Just to clear things, this fic is based on the anime and not the manga. And because Memory World (based on Atem's memory only) is not an accurate portrayal of the real events that took place, this fic is just one interpretation/what-if scene of what possibly happened to Mana (again, _not_ following the manga). _

_____If you see any errors, I'm sorry; please bear with me. I'll try to edit my work more after finishing some personal business._ As always, Yu-Gi-Oh does not belong to me.

* * *

The room was quiet, except for the shifting of a few cards. Faced up, faced down, set aside, taken back—the restructuring of the once Nameless Pharaoh's deck never seemed to end, as Black Magician Girl was waiting for her chance to be selected via her monster card.

As comrade after comrade got segregated and heaped into several low piles, she viewed the silent moments of her master, waiting patiently—or at least was trying to. Reining in anticipation was often failure; it must be an innate quality she "inherited" from Mana.

Even from her distant dimension, her master's intense concentration reached her. Many forces about him could. It was no wonder that even if his opponent's shuffling of the powerful deck situated her at its rear, she would feel even the slightest shift of confidence to urgency.

Two more cards before her turn.

First card.

He deliberated. Several mental plays, reflected in those small piles, must be being laid out by the strategist within him. That first card… Ah, yes, her fierce friend, Queen's Knight, would definitely be of great aid to their master. But really, he _deliberated_. Even the decisive settling down of the female monster to a vacant spot seemed a painful slow process for the still unselected blonde with perpetual bright flush on her cheeks. The agonizing torture of keeping her will still! And her card was only peeking with the speed of a growing reed…

Finally all sorts of holding back evaporated. "Master!"

He blinked. Clearly he hadn't been expecting her to speak. Nonetheless he took out her card to fully face it. "Black Magician Girl…?"

He would be alone, she knew. The other master had fully retreated tonight. All she wanted was to simply keep him company, without a word so as not to disturb him in his preparation. If only he would grant permission…

She got her wish.

Through bright light of a special self-summon, she practically leapt into his presence. The duel disk shared by the pharaoh and his vessel wasn't activated, but advanced technology to materialize her wasn't a necessity this time. Instead she floated behind him, distancing herself.

It was the first and only time she saw his back. Three thousand years ago, she hovered behind him while they battled but all the angle could provide her was his tensed nape. Now he wasn't fighting but the air of tension still hung around him. She could sense it even though he had tuned out her presence for now to concentrate. As welcoming as watching his back was, it also felt strange. She was more accustomed to standing in front of him with _her_ back facing him, ready to obey his every command in duels.

It was the first and only time she had worn that fierce, defiant battle mask, during her introduction to the current world of duels. How she hated it when opponents didn't even have the guts to play fairly in a duel, but she hated it even more when they looked down on her master, the repulsion enough to raise her determination of ensuring their regret. Especially if the receiving end was an idiotic "master" of magicians who had zero basic knowledge about magic and apprenticeship. Anyone who had seen her that way would never have imagined her wearing smiles, frowns and expressions of worry. Just like her other master Yugi and his friends. Just like Mana.

_Like_ would be erroneous. She was Mana but she was _not_ Mana. Nothing more than the childish girl's essence in voluptuous embodiment, nothing short of a magician in the making. _Another Mana_ would be more befitting. Strange how parallel this existence grew to that of the pharaoh, who had gone even as far as meriting the reference _Other Me_ from her other master.

Except that she wasn't even _another Mana_ anymore. Not in the same sense as when Mana was still, albeit barely, breathing like a fish beside a river in feeble attempts to wipe Zorc out. Or when the young apprentice finally followed the footsteps of her mentor, when she forced all her own _ba_ and her essence to fuse in attempts rivaling the sum of all gods revered by the pharaoh's subjects. Such uncalculated risk yelled _insanity_ but she still stubbornly proceeded. In the end, all that remained were a still separated hovering blonde in azure costume and an open-eyed corpse still clutching her beige chest.

It was the first and only time an apprentice had gone beyond herself to create a noble sacrifice, and everything should have been worth it. But Mana, disciple of Mahado, was now a dead friend of the pharaoh. And Mana, the living failure, was just _ka_. All along. No one understood how even a mere glance at the actual Mana's unseeing eyes sickened the survivor to the core, as though she had cheated the girl of existence just by remaining alive and free. After all, she also mirrored Mana's weakest spots—and therefore, should reflect the same fate.

But fate, more cruel than the most heartless slave driver, refused to acknowledge that her final blasts of magic would turn the tables to the pharaoh's favor. No, fate held her face so she wouldn't miss how the young ruler lost his life, his memories, his _name_. How she wished she shared his exact fate if she couldn't receive Mana's. That way, she wouldn't be eternally haunted by the fact that she let Mana down and, worse later on, the pharaoh.

The penguin jerk was right. She was a mere speck of dust under Mahado's—or should she say now, Black Magician's shadow. And next to the three majestic gods, she was even barely anything. But it was no excuse to slack off and hand over what magic she had to mediocrity. Just the opposite, in truth.

Now she was powerful, yet the coming Ceremonial Battle was putting her to the test with its pressure and deciding her fate with the pharaoh. She knew that if he was defeated, he would go to the afterlife and reunite with Mana, among his other loved ones. But Black Magician Girl would remain separated from him, and so would her will for eternal servitude. _Ka_ such as she did not have a place in the realm of resting souls. Would eternal death receive her in its cold arms of rest? She didn't know. Just that she and every other monster belonged to the world of their kind, usually untouched by the physical one—only to be reunited time and time again with living humans by a game, its roots embedded in ancientry.

Hours later, she could see the beginnings of sunrise, and he hadn't even slept yet. His deck was almost complete. Once the last card joined it, he was a long stride closer to the duel of conclusion.

A shot of impulsiveness sent her arms briefly around him—the first and only time she dared a hug at her master. But it was the only moment she had to convey she got his back.

A friend's back.

_Always… Prince._

As sudden as the slightest jerk of his lean arms, she backed off. That recent display meant an innocent intention but she had just risked misinterpretation, through what appeared to be his discomfort. She could have just _told_ him, couldn't she? But she had also promised earlier that she wouldn't breathe a word. It probably would be best for her to return to the duel monsters' world. Slowly enveloped by soft light, she willed herself to vanish…

…and froze.

He was on his feet, in a tall and confident manner, his right hand extended to her in a fixed sign.

A thumbs-up sign.

He gave that gesture to only selected people, those who were always with him.

Those he considered his friends.

It must be an illusion. He had faith in her. He was counting on her. But also in… _that_ way? _What if I fail you again?_

But along with the smirk that could pass for a smile, his hand gesture still remained steady. Never lowering.

_No matter what_, it assured her._  
_

Such a message conveyed to her by her master…

It was the first and only time.

_I won't let you down. Never… Atem._

It was the first and only time she allowed herself to call him by his real name, even in thought.

She couldn't imagine what she had done to merit such acknowledgment from him yet nonetheless was grateful, accepting it with a nod.

She also had to accept, though, the possibility of being separated from her pharaoh through his loss, although she wanted to believe there was no way he would lose. Her other master seemed to gain more and more strength in himself. With him pitted against her real lord, the conclusion would be unpredictable. This only fortified her determination to help her first master.

The light finally enveloped her, and she disappeared from his sight.

She knew that the battle just a few hours from now would be her toughest. With her aiding strike of magic, she and her master had shared many battles together. But now, an ominous feeling pricked her being, something she tried to shake off before she might give an inch into believing it but she couldn't.

Black Magician Girl kept in her these first and only moments she shared with her master tonight, cherishing them while there was still time.

Because what was the first and only also meant the last.

* * *

_And so the oneshot ends. Thank you for taking time to read it. Comments are welcome. Thanks!_


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